Lions Grind Out Victory Over Raiders

The Detroit Lions got back on track after a disastrous loss to the Ravens with a hard fought win over the Las Vegas Raiders 26-14. Behind a defense that was all over the QB the entire game and a great running game, the game was not as close as the final score suggested.

 

The Lions offense got back on track after being shut down by the Ravens and just trusted rookie RB Jahmyr Gibbs with being the Bell cow back this game. Gibbs ran the ball 26 times for 152 yards and a TD, all career highs and also caught the ball 5 times for 37 yards. His backup for the game Craig Reynolds also added 74 yards on 14 carries and they combined for 5.5 yards a carry. This being a game where the Lions were down star center Frank Ragnow and had to play 3 backups on the offensive line, the Lions really did not slow down on the ground.

 

The passing game was decent as well. Goff threw for 272 yards and a TD but had a terrible pick 6 returned by the Raiders when he was trying to throw the ball out of bounds. Amon-Ra St Brown had his 5th 100 yard game of the season and now has the most yards by a Lions player in their first 40 games, surpassing Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson. Rookie Sam Laporta had 57 yards on 8 catches and a TD.

 

The offense only struggled in the red zone where they fumbled once and had to kick 3 times. The fumble was called a fumble on the field but the replay makes it pretty questionable but not enough evidence to overturn it. These are mistakes the Lions need to correct otherwise this game could've been a bigger blowout.

 

Maxx Crosby was the best player on the field the entire night on the Raiders side. He could not be stopped by anyone including star RT Penei Sewell. He was not able to get a sack though.

 

The defense of the Lions was the real story. The Raiders were held to 157 total yards and only 77 total net passing yards. Jimmy Garoppolo was held to 10/21 passing for 126 yards and an interception. He tried targeting Davante Adams throughout the game but they only connected once for 11 yards and the rest of the throws were overthrows and the pick.

 

What really effected the passing game was the Lions pressure. The Lions had 6 sacks and generated pressure on 70% of drop backs. 5 different Lions had at least 3 pressures on Jimmy G, led by Alim McNeil with 6 and Aidan Hutchinson had another 5 pressures despite the Raiders clearly double and triple teaming him throughout.

 

The Lions also held the Raiders to under 100 yards and started that streak back up. The Lions are on bye this week and need to get healthy. 3 offense linemen are down, David Montgomery is still out and CJ Gardner Johnson might be coming back. All would be great to have back as the Lions next face the Chargers who are not to be slept on.